![\"Ivan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762169589_103_9688c4ae-8d9e-4bf8-907d-bc03fe401c7b.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNewstalk also conducting review as Ivan Yates failed to disclose \u2018conflict of interest\u2019 when filling in for Pat Kenny during election campaign\n<\/p>\n
The party previously declined to make any detailed statement, but broke with that stance this morning amid deepening unease with the Coalition.<\/p>\n
“Like all political parties, Fianna F\u00e1il has for many years used the services of media skills consultants,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
“The party currently works with a number of providers, all on an ad-hoc basis.<\/p>\n
“In relation to the recent presidential campaign, the party retained the services of Ivan Yates to provide interview and debate training (of failed candidate Mr Gavin).”<\/p>\n
The focus of the training was on the practicalities of in-studio interviews and was centred on preparations for two specific programmes, Fianna Fail said. <\/p>\n
“Ivan provided two sessions in the early stage of the campaign, between the period 23rd September to 29th September.<\/p>\n
“There was no further training or intervention provided after 29th September.<\/p>\n
“Ivan\u2019s training totalled approximately four hours. He did not provide any campaign advice, nor was he involved in the campaign team.”<\/p>\n
The statement clarifies that Mr Yates offered training for both Mr Gavin\u2019s Drivetime interview with Sarah McInerney on September 24, and the campaign\u2019s first debate on Virgin Media television on September 29. <\/p>\n
Mr Gavin dropped out of the presidential race following the The Week in Politics debate on October 5, when he was further questioned on revelations that he owed a former tenant overpaid rent, which was first reported by the Irish Independent. <\/p>\n
The party\u2019s statement comes after Newstalk Radio said yesterday they are reviewing political commentator Ivan Yates\u2019 work for them during the presidential election after they said he failed to inform them of any potential \u201cconflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n
This comes after the Irish Independent revealed on Saturday that Yates had been secretly working as an advisor to Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s failed presidential candidate, Jim Gavin.<\/p>\n
Yates worked for Newstalk, and appeared on the popular Path to Power podcast during the election campaign. Both Matt Cooper and NK Management \u2013 who own Path to Power podcast \u2013 said he did not disclose his advisory role and immediately ended his association with the show as a consequence.<\/p>\n
Now, Newstalk have said that Yates worked for them as a presenter on Newstalk for three days during the presidential campaign on September, 23, 24, and 25, from 9am-12pm, covering for Pat Kenny.<\/p>\n
“Ivan Yates did not inform Newstalk of any conflict of interest relating to the presidential election campaign. This matter is currently under review by Newstalk management,\u201d a statement from the broadcaster said.<\/p>\n
Ivan Yates has wished the \u2018Path to Power\u2019 podcast every continued success in a LinkedIn post earlier today, sharing a clip of what he described as his \u2018last episode.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ivan Yates has been axed as co-host of podcast ‘Path to Power.’ Photo: Mark Condren<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Monday November 3 <\/p>\n
Mr Yates participated in, and contributed to many high-profile conversations around the time of the presidential election, while working with Mr Gavin on his campaign and not disclosing it to the public or companies he worked for.<\/p>\n
After the Irish Independent revelation, it was announced that Yates would no longer be part of Cooper\u2019s podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing disclosures in the Irish Independent (Saturday) that Ivan Yates provided training services to Fianna Fail candidate, Jim Gavin, during the recent Presidential election, we have taken the decision to end Ivan\u2019s role as co-host of Path To Power with immediate effect,\u201d a statement from Cooper and NK Management read.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither Matt Cooper nor NK Productions were aware that Ivan was working on the campaign, and both believe that this information should have been shared with the audience of the podcast when the Presidential election was being discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIvan recently advised the Path To Power team of his wish to leave the podcast in the New Year. Nevertheless, the team have taken the decision that in light of this development, his role as a co-host will end immediately\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Matt Cooper, the co-host of \u2018Path to Power\u2019 spoke exclusively to the Sunday Independent, and shared his shock and dismay at what must now happen due to Mr Yates\u2019 concealed involvement with the presidential campaign of the Fianna F\u00e1il candidate. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am rarely shocked but I was shocked. And then I suppose I was angry and now I\u2019m sad because I very much enjoyed working with Ivan,\u201d Mr Cooper said, who admitted that going back into studio with wasn\u2019t an option when he felt that he \u201chadn\u2019t been correctly informed,\u201d on something so fundamental to their work. <\/p>\n
He said on Saturday that: \u201cWhile we have always been aware of Ivan\u2019s commercial activities, his decision not to advise us that he was actively engaged in the Presidential election on behalf of one of the parties is disappointing. Had he shared that information with us, we would have made sure that our audience was aware of the matter when we were discussing the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fine Gael Media minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan said Ivan Yates\u2019 role in the presidential election is \u201ca matter for Fianna F\u00e1il\u201d but branded Yates\u2019 comments about smearing the \u201cbejaysus\u201d out of Catherine Connolly as \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s very clear that his commentary, which was disgusting…is now very evidently, clearly, not attached to Fine Gael. Heather Humphreys had to spend days, if not weeks, going around defending someone who was working for a different political party and I think it would be in everyone\u2019s best interest now if Ivan Yates just came clean and said what he was up to.<\/p>\n
“He did Heather Humphreys a huge amount of damage and it stuck…and the fact that he was a former Fine Gael minister doesn\u2019t seem to have any relevance because he was on the payroll of Fianna F\u00e1il, it appears,\u201d Minister O\u2019Donovan told Virgin Media News in Chicago on Sunday.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Sunday evening, RT\u00c9 said that Ivan Yates was “not employed by RT\u00c9 as a presenter during the Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n election period, nor was he a contributor on any RT\u00c9 programmes during this period”.<\/p>\n
The election rules of Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n began on September 22 until election day and RT\u00c9 said it is satisfied there was no breach of election guidelines on its programmes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the pre-election period, he [Yates] was interviewed on two programmes: On 14 August he was interviewed on Prime Time after the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness. On 02 September he was interviewed on Morning Ireland about the Fine Gael nomination process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the post-election period Mr Yates was interviewed during the \u2018live\u2019 count coverage in Dublin Castle on 25 October. He was also interviewed on Prime Time on 28 October,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRT\u00c9 relies on the professional bone fides of those invited to declare if they have a conflict of interest with respect to any candidate or party, if that would not be publicly known.<\/p>\n
\u201cIvan Yates was well established as a media commentator since leaving politics. RT\u00c9 has asked Mr Yates why he did not disclose his involvement with one campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad RT\u00c9 been informed by Mr Yates, we would have advised him that this would have to be disclosed to the audience, if he was to participate in any programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cRT\u00c9 is satisfied there was no breach of the election guidelines,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio One this morning, Minister Colm Brophy said that this information \u201craises serious questions for Fianna F\u00e1il,\u201d who are already in what would appear to be a precarious position regarding the lack of satisfaction shown by some party members towards their leader, Miche\u00e1l Martin. <\/p>\n
Mr Brophy suggested that the \u201cregulations around fairness and impartiality that affect broadcasters,\u201d were breached by Mr Yates, if he was \u201ccommercially involved in a campaign but not declaring that to the broadcasters who they were coming on to contribute to, or work with.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newstalk also conducting review as Ivan Yates failed to disclose \u2018conflict of interest\u2019 when filling in for Pat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,4771,553,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-160339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-fianna-fail","14":"tag-fine-gael","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-presidential-election","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115485553795051041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}